Pole Position(ポールポジション,Pōru Pojishon?) is an arcaderacing video game which was released by Namco in 1982 and licensed to Atari, Inc. for US manufacture and distribution, running on the Namco Pole Positionarcade system board. The game was designed by Tōru Iwatani, who had also designed the Gee Bee games and Pac-Man. It was the most popular coin-op arcade game of 1983. Pole Position was released in two configurations: a standard upright cabinet, and an environmental/cockpit cabinet. Both versions feature a steering wheel and a gear shifter for low and high gears, but the environmental/cockpit cabinet featured both an accelerator and a brake pedal, while the standard upright one only featured an accelerator pedal.[2]

By 1983, it had become the highest-grossing arcade game that year in North America,[3] where it had sold over 21,000 machines for $61 million[4][5] ($149 million in 2015), along with $450 ($1100 in 2015) weekly revenues per machine.[6] It was the most successful racing game of the classic era, spawning ports, sequels, and a Saturday morning cartoon.[3] The game established the conventions of the racing game genre and its success inspired numerous imitators. Pole Position is regarded as one of the most influential video games of all time and "arguably the most important racing game ever made."[7]

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In this game, the player controls a Formula Onerace car, and has to complete a time trial lap within a certain amount of time (between 90 and 120 seconds) to qualify for an F1 race at the Fuji Racetrack. After qualifying, the player races against seven other CPU-controlled cars in a championship race (but if he or she does not qualify, the car will stay on the track until the timer runs out). The player must also avoid going off the road so that he or she will not crash into the billboards.

Pole Position was the first racing video game to feature a track based on a real racing circuit. It was also the first game to feature a qualifying lap, requiring the player to complete a time trial before they can compete in Grand Prix races. Once the player has qualified, they must complete the race in the time allowed, avoiding collisions with CPU-controlled opponents and billboards along the sides of the track. The game's publisher Atari publicized the game for its "unbelievable driving realism" in providing a Formula 1 experience behind a racing wheel. The game's graphics featured full-colour landscapes with scaling sprites, including race cars and other signs, and a pseudo-3D, third-person, rear perspective view of the track, with its vanishing point swaying side to side as the player approaches corners, accurately simulating forward movement into the distance.[8]

For manufacture and distribution in the United States, Namco approached Bally Midway with a choice of two games in 1982. Bally Midway chose Mappy while Atari was left to publish Pole Position, which turned out to be the most popular game of 1983.

The game was an early example of product placement within a video game, with billboards around the track advertising actual companies.[12] However, some billboards were specific to the two versions such as those of Pepsi and Canon in the Namco version, and those of 7-Eleven, Dentyne, Centipede, and Dig Dug in the Atari version, which replaced such billboards as those of Marlboro and Martini & Rossi, who although were prominent motorsport sponsors at the time, would be found inappropriate in the American market for a game aimed towards children. Other billboards appeared in both versions.

The game was also featured in a TV commercial shown only on MTV (originally called Music Television). It was part of a series of TV spots that Atari created in the 1980s exclusively for MTV.[13]

Electronic Games in 1983 wrote that the arcade Pole Position "keeps the action on track from start to finish", with "solid, realistic graphics and challenging play".[21]InfoWorld stated that it "is by far the best road-race game ever thrown on a video screen", with "bright and brilliant" graphics,[22] but that the Commodore 64 version "looks like a rush job and is far from arcade-game quality".[23] When reviewing the Atari 5200 version, Hi-Res in 1984 found "the playability of the game to be limited and the graphics to be the strongest aspect of the game". The magazine preferred Adventure International's Rally Speedway to both Pole Position and Epyx's Pitstop.[24]

A version of Pole Position was released for iPod on January 21, 2008. On September 14, 2008, a version of Pole Position was released for iOS devices called Pole Position: Remix. The game features upgraded graphics and several different control methods, but remains similar in content to the original. This version of Pole Position also features the tracks from Pole Position II and a new track called Misaki Point.

Pole Position II was released in 1983, and featured three additional courses in addition to the original Fuji track. It features slightly improved graphics, as well as a different car color scheme and opening theme. Several new billboards have also been introduced.

There is also the aforementioned Pole Position: Remix for the iPod and iPhone which features updated graphics and music, and all four courses that were previously featured in Pole Position II in addition to the aforementioned new course, Misaki Point.

Pole Position is played by the characters Daryl and Turtle in the motion picture D.A.R.Y.L. and is one of the first times in the film where Daryl — a seemingly normal boy who is actually an android — displays some of his super-human abilities by earning an amazingly high score in the game.